Commission’s development plans thrown into disarray

The European Commission has abandoned its plans to develop an office site in Brussels outside the existing European quarter after a U-turn by the Brussels regional government.

The Commission has been negotiating for more than a year to develop the Delta site, in the Brussels suburb of Auderghem, close to existing Commission offices at Beaulieu.

“We are abandoning Delta,” a Commission spokesman said, following a meeting between Maroš Šefcovic, the European commissioner for administration, and Charles Picqué, the head of the Brussels regional government.

The Commission had learnt last week, from an interview that Picqué gave to Le Soir, a Belgian franco-phone newspaper, that the regional government no longer supported the idea of the Commission using the Delta site.

Nearly four years ago, the Commission and the Brussels government signed up to a joint declaration on the future development of the European quarter in Brussels that included an ambition to develop a centre – or “pole” – away from the Rond-Point Schuman area. This policy of decentralisation was supposed to make it easier to improve the development of the existing EU quarter, which encompasses the Commission’s Berlaymont headquarters, the Charlemagne building, the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament.

The two sides then agreed that a site at Delta, which is owned by the Belgian federal government, was their preferred site for such a centre, and the Commission began negotiations on its development.

It is understood that feasibility studies and negotiations have failed to resolve questions about whether the site can accommodate the required amount of office space and about access roads.

Surprised Commission

A spokesman for Šefcovic said he was “surprised” by the government’s decision.

Marie-Laure Roggemans, representative of the Brussels regional government for the development of the European quarter, had told a European Voice conference in March last year that the government supported the development of Delta and that a definitive decision from the European Commission was expected in the summer of 2011.

But at that same conference Didier Gosuin, the mayor of Auderghem, argued strongly against the Delta site being developed for the Commission.

The change of heart by the regional government may revive the hopes of other communes in Brussels that have tried to attract the Commission as a tenant or landowner. The commune of Schaerbeek had wanted the Commission to build its offices on what are now the Josaphat railway sidings.

Šefcovic’s spokesman said that the region continued to be the Commission’s partner on building policy in Brussels. “We will not do anything without its support. If this is the region’s conclusion, the Commission will have to reflect carefully on the new situation, before deciding how to proceed,” he said, adding that this could mean looking at other sites, or abandoning the idea of a site outside the European quarter.

The review may yet become a wholesale reappraisal of the development plan for the European quarter that the Commission and the regional government agreed in 2008. The plan, which included a competition among architects and urban developers, aspired to improve the mix of office, shops and accommodation along the rue de la Loi and its immediate vicinity. The Commission staff would be moved into fewer buildings of greater size and height.

However, the Commission has since committed itself to a 5% reduction in staff numbers and to cutting back its administrative budget. And at this week’s meeting, Šefcovic told Picqué that the plan to concentrate staff in fewer buildings made no sense if the regional government could not deliver on its promise to reduce traffic in the area around the Rond-Point Schuman and along rue de la Loi.